UNESCO chair a sign after Expo - Milan Center

MILAN - The UNESCO chair created at Milan's Università Statale for the right and access to food awards the city and its heritage as the host of the 2015 food-themed Universal Exposition so "the international calling that this great event has inspired can remain alive", said Antonio Bettanini, the director of the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy.
    Bettanini was commenting on Monday the creation of the first UNESCO chair in Milan on the right to food in a manifesto promoted when Livia Pomodoro, the president of the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy, was appointed as its holder.
    The manifesto stressed that Pomodoro "has fought and is fighting so the legacy of Expo is confirmation of the leadership conquered by Milan and Lombardy in the perspective of sustainable development".
    It was signed by political and business leaders including Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, the president of Confindustria and Confcommercio, respectively Vincenzo Boccia and Carlo Sangalli, the deans of Milan's universities, Gianluca Vago (Statale), Ferruccio Resta (Politecnico), Cristina Messa (Bicocca), Letizia Moratti, Diana Bracco, Carlo Messina (CEO Banca Intesa), Giuseppe Guzzetti (president of the Fondazione Cariplo), Luciano Fontana (editor-in-chief of Corriere della Sera), to cite a few.
    Italy has 26 UNESCO chairs, which have the objective of promoting international cooperation among universities.
    Milan already hosts two - one on energy for sustainable development and another one on the conservation and architectural planning of the city's heritage, both at the Polytechnic. Overall, there are four food-themed UNESCO chairs - one in Oman, one in South Africa and two in Spain.
    Pomodoro said such chairs are "in the interest of humanity", stressing that Milan will not only need to focus on the right to food but also on the right to water, which will be "the great problem of the coming years".
    Indeed the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy will attend the Dubai Expo 2020 to discuss this theme.